The Anatomy of MusicBee
Up-to-date with version This page covers the basics of MusicBee's layout and the options available in the Panels Configuration window. This page just gives a quick overview of the layout options; the details can be found on the linked pages. To the right is what MusicBee's layout looks like "out of the box". It includes: * The Main Menu shown as a button * The Tabs Bar shown below the Caption Bar * The Navigator panel in the Left Sidebar * The Thumbnail Browser in the Left Main Panel * The Column Browser at the top of the Main Panel * Tracks View in the Main Panel * The Playing Tracks List in the Right Sidebar * Track Information and Lyrics stacked in the Right Sidebar * The Status Bar in the Bottom Panel * The Player Controls in the Bottom Panel Panels Configuration The Panels Configuration window is opened with the Configure Layout button, to the left of the Search box in the Tabs Bar. There are 21 elements that can be configured, with 9 possible locations and further configuration options available for most elements. Not every element can be in every location, but many elements can be reordered to your liking, too. That's a LOT of options! Throw in the extra options for each element and you're unlikely to find two layouts that are exactly the same. Let's break it down by location, since that's what you'll see in the Panels Configuration window. The default options are marked. Most elements have further settings that can be configured by using Panels Settings [...] button. Elements with a checkbox to the right may be stacked together (occupying the same layout space) by ticking the box. Any unstacked elements in between ticked elements will cause a new stack to start. You may choose to cycle through stacked elements by clicking the header bar of the stack, or you may choose to have tabs shown for each element in the stack. Stackable elements are marked with a +. Header Bar * Main Menu * Tabs Bar * Command Buttons ** must be configured in order to appear Top Panel Alternate location for the Player Controls only. Left Sidebar The Left Sidebar may be hidden for the current tab by using the Tab Overrides settings. See Status Bar for more options to show and hide the Left Sidebar. * Navigator ** if the Thumbnail Browser is in the same panel, the Navigator may be hidden behind it * Album Cover+ * Artist Biography+ * Artist Picture+ * Library Explorer * Lyrics+ * Playing Tracks+ * Sidebar Player * Spectrum Visualiser * Thumbnail Browser * Track Information+ * Wavebar Left Main Panel The Left Main Panel may be hidden for the current tab by using the Tab Overrides settings. * Thumbnail Browser ** if the Navigator is shown in the same panel, the Thumbnail Browser may cover it * Album Cover+ * Artist Biography+ * Artist Picture+ * Library Explorer * Lyrics+ * Navigator * Playing Tracks+ * Sidebar Player * Spectrum Visualiser * Track Information+ * Wavebar Main Panel * Column Browser * Files * AZ Jumpbar * Now Playing Bar * Playing Tracks * Spectrum Visualiser * Thumbnail Browser * Wavebar Right Main Panel The Right Main Panel may be hidden for the current tab by using the Tab Overrides settings. * Album Cover+ * Artist Biography+ * Artist Picture+ * Lyrics+ * Playing Tracks+ * Sidebar Player * Spectrum Visualiser * Track Information+ * Wavebar Right Sidebar The Right Sidebar may be hidden for the current tab by using the Tab Overrides settings. See Status Bar for more options to show and hide the Right Sidebar. * Playing Tracks+ * Track Information+ * Lyrics+ * Album Cover+ * Artist Biography+ * Artist Picture+ * Sidebar Player * Spectrum Visualiser * Wavebar Bottom Panel * Status Bar * Player Controls Floating Window The Floating Window will appear once elements are added and the configuration is saved or applied. It can be minimized, but can only be closed by removing the elements again via the Panels Configuration window. * Artist Biography+ * Lyrics+ * Playing Tracks+ * Sidebar Player * Spectrum Visualiser * Track Information+ * Wavebar Toolbar By default, the toolbar contains: New Tab Button Navigation Buttons Back, Forward and Refresh buttons allow browser-like functionality. (The Refresh button will appear when mousing over the address box.) Address Box This box will show what node or playlist you're viewing, including any active filters. Can be directly edited to navigate to locations on your computer (e.g. C:\Music) and some library categories (such as Music). You can also enter a URL here, to use MusicBee's internal browser. Configure Layout Button Opens the . Search Box Custom Toolbar Buttons Configure Layout Menu The configure layout menu (accessed from the ) allows you to select how you want to view your library, show or hide a couple of handy navigation tools, and save layouts you've configured. *Show A-Z Jump Bar *Show Track Browser *Artwork *Album and Tracks *Track Detail *Custom Views *Playing Track Panel Navigation Tools A-Z Jump Bar Will allow you to jump to a particular letter in your library, according to whatever tag you have it sorted by. Right clicking on the jump bar you will give you the option to use multi-character searches (multiple letters clicked within 3 seconds of each other) or display the jump bar vertically instead of horizontally. Track Browsers These browser will filter your library according to the tags you select. The Column Browser is plain text, and the Thumbnail Browser includes thumbnails. Library You have three basic options for viewing your library, which are explained in detail on their own pages: * Track Detail View * Album and Tracks View * Artwork View These are selected from the accessed via the . Also see Library Context Menus. Status Bar On the right-hand side, this shows the number of tracks in the current view, their total size in KB, MB, or GB and their total duration. Clicking this information changes the way the duration is displayed (HH:MM:SS vs decimal numbers). During processes such as syncing with a device or organizing files, relevant information is displayed on the left-hand side, with an X to terminate it. Double clicking here will usually bring up a dialogue box with more details on the process. Bottom Panels There are three things that can be in a bottom panel, each of which also has another possible location: *Playing Track Panel: to activate it, go to the > Playing Track Panel and check "Show in the Bottom Pane." Once activated, it will have a show/hide button just like the right and left panels. (The alternate location for this is in its own tab.) *Now Playing List: the Now Playing List can be shown here, separate from the Now Playing Panel. *Tag Editor: The tag editor can be displayed as a bottom panel instead of a floating window. If all three of these are present, they will be displayed in this order (top to bottom): *Tag Editor *Now Playing List *Playing Track Panel Sidebars There are supplemental panels, or sidebars, available on either side of the main panel. These can be hidden or retrieved via the arrow buttons in the bottom corners of the MusicBee window (in line with the ). By default, if you move your mouse to the edge of the screen while a sidebar is hidden, it will pop up. You can disable this behavior by right clicking at the top of the pop-up and checking Disable Auto-Open. Left Sidebar The left sidebar is primarily for navigation. You can choose what nodes and subnodes you want to display via Layout Preferences. There are several optional components that you can display in the left sidebar: *Library Explorer: opened with the vertical show/hide button at the bottom of the panel, or by right clicking in the left sidebar. *Artwork: you can choose to display album art or artist photos by right clicking in the left sidebar. *Now Playing List: the now playing list can be moved to the left sidebar by itself, separate from the rest of the Now Playing panel. *Now Playing Panel: you can choose to move the whole Now Playing panel (see below) to the left sidebar. This disables the other left sidebar options, except for Library Explorer. Right Sidebar The right sidebar is primarily for displaying information about playing or selected tracks. Right sidebar components can include: *Now Playing List *Track Details *Lyrics *Album Art *Player *Wavebar *Spectrum Visualization The right sidebar can also be converted into a floating window (essentially the same as the classic Compact Player). Right click at the very top of the panel, choose Panel Dock, and then Show in Floating Window. This is also where you can choose to move the panel to the left sidebar. Player Contains playback controls such as play/pause, volume, shuffle, and repeat. Displays track info and progress bar. Caption Bar MusicBee offers two possible ways to use the normally empty space in the caption bar, if you want. Menus By default, MusicBee's program menus are accessed through the MusicBee button at the top left. If you prefer a traditional menu layout, go to Layout Preferences. You can choose to display the menus in the caption bar or just below it. The Bee icon contains another menu with commonly used entries from other menus, to save you a few clicks. Tabs MusicBee's tabs (and new tab button) can be displayed in the caption bar. This is also configured in Layout Preferences. (In order to do this, the menus MUST be behind the button.) Category:Out-of-Date